Man pleads guilty in bar fight charge

NEWTON FALLS -- A Garrettsville man involved in a bar fight April 2 and subsequent run-in with police officers will spend 30 days in Trumbull County Jail. John Lusher, 23, pleaded guilty Tuesday morning in Newton Falls Municipal Court to a reduced charge of criminal damaging. Atty. George Kalafut, who represents Lusher, and Greg Hicks, Warren's law director who served as special prosecutor on the case, worked out a plea agreement last month. In exchange for Lusher's guilty plea, the charge was reduced from felony vandalism. Hicks recommended a 90-day jail sentence with 60 days of that term suspended. A charge of resisting arrest was dismissed. As a result of the arrest of Lusher and his companion, Connie Casseday, police Sgt. James Zimomra was indicted in May on two charges of felonious assault and one charge of misdemeanor assault. On a videotape recorded by a camera in another officer's cruiser, Zimomra can be seen hitting Casseday. She received seven stitches. Zimomra also was accused of hitting Lusher with his cruiser while officers were chasing the couple through the back alleys of Newton Falls after the bar fight, Kalafut has said.

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